cakap cakap...blogging.

Why is it that I, a Malay, am now living in Melbourne, Australia? Why is it that I, a Malay, living now in Melbourne Australia, is fearful of going back to my country of birth, Malaysia. 

All that a privilege Malay should have I have had.

My grandfather, Dr Latiff, is the first Malay Doctor. My education in my formative years was at the Malay College Kualal Kangsar. My Uncles and Father have all served the government with distinctions if not valour. My classmate Anwar Ibrahim was once DPM. My cousin, the late Endon was the wife of a Prime Minister...and I could go on and on and on....my cup truly runneth over. 

Why do I now choose to live in Australia? And why am I fearful of going back to my country of birth, The country I am still a citizen of?    

I migrated to Australia over three decades ago for many reasons - mainly because the lifestyle I saw then developing in Malaysia was not one I would choose for myself to live. My wife is an Australian - we married in London - and that gave me the choice to choose Australia to live in. And I did. 

I started blogging about seven years back when I was in Adelaide and having now moved to Melbourne, blogging about Malaysia has become so much a part of my life, that not doing so would be inconceivable. And I blog about life and current affairs in Malaysia. 

What I blog about current affairs in Malaysia this umno led bn government can do without. And I am told by reliable sources in K Hell that I am now a "person of interest" and will be a "person of interest" should I go back to K Hell while this odious and corrupt najib led bn government is in Putrajaya. And so for now I will not go back to K Hell....but I will blog.

There are many others like me. 

Many of them stay put in Malaysia and write about stuff that makes them a "person of interest" to the powers that be in Malaysia. For these people I profess admiration tinge with a sense of "if only I was as brave" and have stayed in Malaysia to be one with them. But though I am far far away DownUnder....I would like you know that we are in touch with each other. When our path crosses, we give due respect to the other and where possible and necessary, we will assist the other in any way we can. Every day in many ways, the ranks of us bloggers increase exponentially. I hope that the powers that be in umno and the bn government will not take umbrage at this claim of mine...that bloggers grow by large amounts from day to day. I know they will not take umbrage because those goons in Putrajaya, in all probability, do not know what "umbrage" and "exponentially" means!...

...but I digress.

As I was saying...there are many others like me. 

Of course the "johnny-come-lately" who started blogging after I did are also doing well themselves - especially that guy who calls himself Che Det! While some who started way before me, are now NOT doing so well...especially that guy in Manchester...nudge nudge wink wink. But that is the way the cookies crumbles. I just carry on blogging without worrying too much about the others. Kalau dia orang mau jadi kawan...ok lah. Kalau dia orang mau lawan pon OK....because I can give as good as I get.

...but again I digress.

This is just a piece about my thoughts this morning. This is my third posting this morning and it is still not even 9 AM yet....so the day is till young even if I am old. Let us see what the  rest of the day will bring. Selmat Pagi and may the force be with you!  

    

Let me Story You Lah!

Let me share with you a few things that has been on my mind these last few weeks. Well it has been stewing in my head for more than these last few weeks but especially so in these last few weeks. This is not about me it is really about you all and yet at the same time it is about me. 

What has been on my mind for a long long time is how do we make blogging  - not just steadyaku47 but blogging....how do we make bloggers more effective and relevant in the process of sharing information that you all should know to start the process of change that the majority of Malaysians want? 

After almost a decade of blogging what I know is simply this : there is just so much we bloggers can do. If you do not read what we write...we die lah. What blogger writes just for himself? He writes because he wants others to read what he writes. He or she wants as many people as possible to read what they write  - for what ever reason lah!

Let me take one specific example - how I write about anything... or as the Datin would say...let me story you lah!

No names....just initials.

26th January:

I received a message on Facebook from SM in Singapore and I have posted the conversation below. 

Asslm Tuan Hussein, Saya AG dari Singapore. Tuan minat hendak gambar Jet Global 5000, N689WM yang skrg sudsh berada selama lebih dari pada 3 minggu di salah satu hangar di Singapura

Somehow I only became aware of the message two weeks later and replied : 

Sori saya baru lihat...

and so our "conversation started :

Tak apa saya tahu tuan baayak nak di fikirkan untok buat posting. Saya sungoh meminati tulisan tuan.

Hussein

terima kasih...apa saja yang saudara fikir boleh saya highlight...tolong tunjukan...

dan nama saya hussein...

bukan tuan..

Selera

Its abt the jet that i mention. This is one of the asset that US DOJ is after. The jet is in Singapore Seletar airport with a "Red Notice" pasted on the jet door.

It abt the 1MDB case.

Hussein

That is interesting...please do forward me any images you may have ...and what does the "red notice" says?

Selera

Unable to really see what the notice say.The jet have been in Jet Aviation hangar for checking/ maybe servicing and being park with no activty fof the last 2 week. Will forward you the photo.

Hussein

It is now 2,14 AM here in Melbourne...penat and say nak tido sekarang....please send me anything you have and whatever else you can tell me about it and i will work on it first thing in the morning....

regards..

Ok have a good night rest. Looking forward for yiur next post.

Hussein

Within hours of getting the photo I wrote about it and posted the article onto my blog. 

Thursday, 2 February 2017

JET GLOBAL 5000 N689WM HAS BEEN IN A HANGER IN SINGAPORE SELETAR AIRPORT WITH A RED NOTICE PASTED ON IT'S DOOR FOR THE PAST TWO WEEKS AND COUNTING.

Within two days it got over 10K clicks on my blog and 105 shares. It was also posted on Malaysia Chronicle.

This is information that Malaysians should know about. 

A Singaporean alerted me to the Jet presence at Seletar Airport, provided me with images of it....and within days a few hundred Malaysians became aware that the Global 5000 N689WM Jet, bought with OUR 1MDB money,  was parked there. 

Now I know that some of you out there in Bolehland and even in Wagga Wagga in Australia, have information about our BN leaders that they would like to share with other Malaysians. 

If you do, please, forward it to me at hussein47hamid@yahoo.com. 

We bloggers need all the help we can get from you all to inform the public about the good and the bad that our leaders do. 

Lawan Mesti Lawan...kasi tolong sikit lah!

cakap cakap...I am as much a Keyboard "Warrior" as Najib is a Bugis one! (NOT!)

What does it take to be a blogger? Over 16 million people in Malaysia have access to the Internet. How do you become one of those two million among the 16 million that Rais Yatim, when he was the Information, Communication and Culture Minister, said were blogging in Malaysia and about Malaysia?

For starters, if you were me, that means waking up at 5.30 this morning, shower and get your personal self organized, put in one load of washing, fold up and put away the other load that you put in the night before, clear the kitchen of any dirty dishes, fill up the empty water bottles and ice cubes, take out whatever fish or meat you intend to cook for the day, clean up the cat food dish and put her morning meal in that cleaned dish, empty the rubbish bins  (yes two bins...one for domestic rubbish and the other for recycles), make your bed, make yourself a cup of Tea or Nescafe (depending on your druthers...this morning it is black strong Tea) and by 6.45 or 7.00 AM or thereabouts...sit yourself down at your table to begin your "work" as a blogger. 

Now that is what I have to do before I can even think of becoming that most misuse, misattributed and most mischevious use of the English language ever: "warrior"....they say that I am a "keyboard warrior" On par with that Bugis politician who labeled himself a Bugis "warrior". We, Najib and me, have as much right in calling ourselves warriors as that Flying Hippo calling herself FLOM. So perish that thought!

Now comes the part where I start to have self-doubts. 

Before you write you must have something to write about. Yes, you have ideas. Yes, you have grand designs....hell you may even have a burning desire to change the world, impose world peace upon all man and women kind....BUT....Who cares? Who wants to know? Are your ideas, thoughts and "want to do's" coherent and doable? And then that most difficult of things to do : Put those ideas in words so that you can share them with others. The actual process of writing may take a few minutes if your thoughts and your flow of words are in sync.....or as is usually the case....hours of write and rewrites before it is done. Then with a flourish and that feeling of "job done!" you click that final "publish button!". 

        

Remember that line in "Fields of Dreams"..."If you build it, He will come"? To me that line is akin to "carpe diem" ....that you should trust your instincts, follow your dreams...seize the moment! So if you want to write, if you want to blog...just go and do it.

Easier said than done! 

When you push that "publish button" to put what you have written on to your blog page, you then start worrying if anybody will read it...will anybody want to read it!

Self-doubt is always there but self-doubt is good because you try harder to write better and you put only your best effort onto the public domain for once you push that "publsih button" what you write is no longer yours. It is no longer in your heart or your head to have and to keep for yourself. Now anybody and everybody can, if they so desire, agree or disagree with what you write. How many of you are prepared to open ideas, your thoughts, your beliefs and yourself up to scrutiny by others without having a "face to face" moment to defend yourself? How many?

I have been doing this for close to seven years now. It is the same process every day with every posting that I put onto steadyaku47. The fact that I am 6300 kilometers from K Hell helps a hell of a lot because I am far from the maddening crowd....but in the end, I am also human. Do I not bleed when you prick me? 

So be gentle my friends when you want to tell me the errors of my ways. But if you want to engage me in civil discussions and tête-à-tête of the graceful and civilized kind...bring it on! I

Enough for now...I will write more on blogging when it moves me to do so. Salam.  

cakap cakap...THINK!

It is past midnight. 12.23 AM to be exact. 

I was already in my bed, under three layers of blankets, watching TV and waiting for sleep...but sleep won't come. I go make myself a cup of Nescafe, put on my jacket and socks.....the temperature outside is 10 degrees C..... and power on my MAC because I know that I want to write until I am tired enough to go to sleep...that may be in 30 minutes or longer. Much longer...

A few things have been playing in my mind. I got my seven million clicks about a week ago and I am now averaging eight thousand clicks a day....maybe ten to twelve thousand clicks if I do more "work" on the blog on any given day. 

I have no one to compare the "popularity" of steadyaku47 with....nor do I want to do so. I write for myself and what I want is to have as many of you to read what I write. Anything else that comes from the writing and the reading is a plus. That plus can be a negative or a positive, I take whatever comes my way as being part of the blogging process.

But I am trying to make some sense of why, out of an average of 8000 clicks a day, I get less that 1%  of reactions (in the forms of "Likes" and "Comments") on what I write in steadyaku47....i.e between 30 to 50 feed backs daily. Now do not get me wrong...I am grateful that any of you do react to what you read in this blog in any way at all...but what about the rest of you? Just click and go? 

I realize that I do not know who reads what I write, why you read what I write and after reading what I write, I do not know what you think of what I write....and here is what I think of all that : We are like two ships passing each other in the still of the night! 

I am still trying to work out in my head whether that is a good thing....still trying to figure out in my mind if there is anything more to blogging than that...and more important to me, if I am comfortable enough with the way things are. 

And I think it would do you good if you figure out in your head as to whether this is a good thing....whether you want to get anything more from reading not only my blog, but any other blog.....whether you want to leave things as they are.....or do you want to be part of the process of blogging by telling us bloggers what you think of what we write and telling us what we should write! 

Think! 

      


 

cakap cakap...blogging.

I have been awake since 5 this morning. And I went to sleep at 2 last night - so physically and mentally I am not at my best. It has not helped that I found that my blog has been tampered with - template has been changed, everything has slowed down a hell of a lot and working on writing, posting, cutting and pasting anything on to my blog has been maddeningly difficult because of that. 

I do not flatter myself into thinking that there is someone out there in bolehland who wants to make my blogging life difficult for me, but if there is someone out there doing just that .....Que sera sera!

In spite of all that, I have just posted "What Shall We Do Now" this morning and there are other things in my head that need to be said....but first I must have some sleep for these last couple of hours, working on my blog has been exhausting. 

My only comfort this morning is thinking of what sort of a night Najib and Rosmah must have had given what transpired yesterday when Mahathir signal his intent to leave Umno. I am sure both of them must have been up by subuh to say their prayers and ask for divine assist in the days ahead. 

While I can go back to sleep now, for Najib and Rosmah daybreak only brings the certainity that this will be the first day of the rest of their political life. How long the "rest of their political life" will be is for ALLAH to know.

 

cakap cakap...blogging lagi!

I have been called a lot of names. My wife calls me Hussein when she is annoyed with me…in fact now days she is the only one still calling me by that name albeit infrequently as it is not that often that we agree to disagree. Old age soothes many a heart…including ours. For the most part it is either Pak or Tok…and at times even “an UMNO blogger” …….sigh! 

 

I have become aware that writing what you think gives license to people to tell YOU what THEY think, not about what you write, but about you. Yes about I, me and myself.

I do not moderate comments though I did do so in the past because I had not then developed that very thick skin needed by seasoned bloggers to take as good as they get from those waiting to hantam us for any perceived “wrong doings.”

The interpretation of “wrong doings” is unique to the person interpreting my postings. The “friend of my enemy is my enemy ” usually covers a broad spectrum of them. Invariably this means that there will always be some goons…hoons…or maybe the right word should really be “dissenting voice” to anything I write. And so I do cop a bashing anytime I stray from the ordinary. From memory I would say the most memorable rant was from this idiot who mistook “biduanita” for “banduan”…need I say more?

As we all know it is impossible to please everyone but the reality is that we bloggers have a culture of impunity that enables us to pass life and death sentences on any one who dares to put pen to paper (have to resort to the old way of describing the written words – putting finger to keyboard just does not sound wordy enough!)

Accustomed as I am to being call a stupid idiot and even (oh heaven forbids!) a stupid old man or grandpa I can still take it on the chin and go with the flow. Hence my decision to not “moderate” any comment stands.

It makes for interesting reading when I do get the rare rebuttal to what I write done by someone who has taken the trouble to rebut sensibly. In these cases I do not let the fact that we had agreed to disagree on fundamentals to come in the way of a good argument! In fact I have a healthy respect for those that could effectively point out my errors in judgement….which do happen given the fact that I am far from the maddening crowd.

And then there are those idiots that actually read what I write because they know that they will disagree with me! Dear God why do you still insist on making some people not to bright? Here I must say that I judge them as I judge myself. I DO NOT read Utusan. I DO NOT go into any overtly pro UMNO blogs – and I have no wish to read what Najib blogs. But that does not mean I do not peep into those blogs when I do get the urge…but to go and read what they post on a daily basis is just too weird for me because I know most of it is crap. BUT …and I am not shok sendiri here…but I have goons out there who time and time again make derogatory comments on what I post religiously. Have they not got anything better to do? Come on lah don’t waste your time reading that steadyaku47 blog  because that stupid old man will always hantam UMNO!

Just some cakap cakap about blogging …..and thanks for reading what I write.

cakap cakap...blogging !

I have been asked if I am a Muslim? If I am a card carrying member of Pakatan Rakyat? Why am I a Malay who denounces other Malays. Why do I write so much about Malaysia when I do not even live there? Who the f@#K am I?

How would the answer to these question affect you? Who I am, where I live or what I do has no bearing at all on the life you live. Possibly what I write might because you may or may not agree with what I write. Even here you can chose to click me out of your life and within a second I am gone.

When I am on my PC and land on any site on the Net  - it will take me just a few seconds to decide if I want to stay or leave that site. I have exit sites when the layout of that site does not appeal to me. When the fonts annoys my eyes. When the first sentence of an article does not grab my attention. So to those that disagree with what I write – click me out of your sight and your life!

Do not linger on my blog to be upset by what you read. If you disagree with what I write and you want to convey those feelings to me I would welcome any spirited debate if done without malice. Where I live, who I am or what I do does not matter because it is only my views that are put into the public domain. If I put anything else that is part of me onto my blog then that would mean that too is open to debate and discussions.

We now live in tumultuous times. Until a few years back  - two or three at the most – I do not know what a blog was and blogging was akin to mountain climbing – something I would never attempt even if my life depends on it. Apart from isolated instances when I am required to submit essays in school and prepare project papers in business situations, I have never written anything for myself or for others to read and ponder about.

Sending an email was an effort I could manage only with the assistance of others around me. A few weeks back I found out through a friend that you could, while traveling in a vehicle, take pictures of your journey and transmit the images to me via the Internet instantaneously. Every time I go on Skype to talk and see my daughter and her family in real time from Canada is a source of great joy and wonderment for me. And all this at no cost to me! Everyday I learn.

Sometimes I feel that I would rather have a blog where only ten or twenty people would read what I write – and I read what they write. Then we would all know each other by name – who we are, where we live and what we like and dislike. And through our blog we exchange views and ideas. We communicate -  a two way process.

Steadyaku47 is too impersonal for me. I find it hard to understand steadyaku47. Since I started working on the blog again these last few months I know that I have a steady number of people who will read what I write…...now here is the part I do not understand. Why do these people stop on steadyaku47? To read what I write? Linger on to listen to the music I posted? To laugh at what I think is funny and wanted to share with them?

Yes I do get comments and e-mails sent to me but 99.9% just land on my blog, read what they want and then our connection ends. You are just a statistic on my stats meter. I can trace you back to which country you are from, which city, which suburbs – even to which street – but that is all. It is so fleeting a connection and nothing comes out of it. That is why I sometimes think that it would be more fulfilling for me to have 20 people read what I write and stay connected to me and build on it. Would I rather have 20 people that I can connect with or a 1000 that hit and run? You tell me what you would rather have?

For me it is not enough to be able to write what I want and have it out onto the public domain for people to ponder, discuss and debate with it. Let me give you an example. Last week I posted a piece I found on my daughter’s Facebook “Death is Nothing.” at: 

http://steadyaku-steadyaku-husseinhamid.blogspot.com/2010/08/is-nothing-at-all-death-is-nothing-at.html

To me it was a well-written piece by someone able to express what he thought of death. And I wanted to share that piece with others because it moved me emotionally. That was until Antares sent me this comment: “Very healthy attitude towards death; reflects a healthy attitude towards life!”  That thought never crossed my mind and by taking the trouble to share his thoughts with me, Antares broaden my understanding of that “Death is Nothing” piece much more then I could do by myself. That my friend is why you should not hesitate to share your thoughts with others. Life is a learning process and I am eager to learn from any of you that care to share your thoughts.